·Jonathan’s friends (the benefit, visited him in hospital and in our home; you showed how much you love Jonathan)
·Chris Howard and Bucks4Books (meaningful employment & support)
·Those who helped with this service: Adrian Gocan (program), Robert Johnson (technical aspects), Mario’s friend (video of Jonathan’s life), Dorothy Grandin, the musicians using their talents, Pastor Tom Hockng and Tami
·All of you, your thoughts, prayers, encouragement
“What I learned from Jonathan during the last few weeks of his life”
1. The importance of being friendly and treating all people with respect
·Most of you know that Jonathan was in the hospital for a week in early Oct.The day he was released from the hospital he was brought home in an ambulance. When the ambulance pulled up to our house, two young men wheeled him up to the house on a gurney. Then they wheeled him into the house on a wheelchair. As Jonathan was shuffling toward his bed, he turned to the two young men, looked them in the eye, called them by their first names, shook their hands, and thanked them for their help. The way he talked with them, it seemed as though he had known them for years. He had really only known them for about half an hour. But that’s the way Jonathan was. He knew how to get close to people.
2. The importance of saying “I’m sorry”
·When he came home from hospital, Sarah & Stephanie moved back in to help out. That meant that along with Sarah came her little baby daughter, Makayla, and her dog Jasmine. We already have two dogs: Nippy & Kobe. Nippy is old and just sleeps in the back of the house. But Kobe and Jasmine have a lot of energy and every time someone would come to the door they would bark and carry on. Occasionally, Makayla would start crying. This would begin to get on Jonathan’s nerves and he would get rather cranky with Sarah.
·Well in the evening, Jonathan called a “family meeting”. I thought he was going to read us the riot act about barking dogs and crying babies. Instead he said: Thank you for helping me; “I’m sorry for being to cranky; I was being selfish”. And then he got tears in his eyes. The world a better place if we all had the humility and courage to follow Jonathan’s example.
3. How great God’s love is for us
· Jonathan had many good qualities, but he also caused Carolyn & me a lot of grief During his teen years just about any kind of trouble a teen could get into, Jonathan got into it. When he turned 19 or 20 he became a little more rational in his behavior—but he had a hard time managing his finances, accumulated quite a bit of debt. We loaned Jonathan money more than once thinking “He can pay us back once he gets a good job”.
These last few months, as it looked as though Jonathan might not survive his battle with cancer, I came to realize that he probably wasn’t going to be able to pay us back. But as I saw him getting weaker day by day and sat by his bedside watching him sleep, I realized that none of that really mattered. What I am going to say? “Jonathan you can’t die, you still owe me money?” No, if he couldn’t pay back his debts so what? It’s just money. Jonathan has an eternal soul that is worth for more than any amount of money. And in my heart I just cancelled Jonathan’s debt.
In a lot of ways, Jonathan reminds me of the story of the prodigal son. I think most of you know that story--A young man took his part of the inheritance from his father and went away and squandered it. When it got to the point that he had to get a job feeding pigs to survive, the Bible says that “he came to his senses”. He went back to his Father and said:
Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father. And then the Bible says:
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
And the father threw a big party to welcome back his son.
Well, Jonathan didn’t get a job feeding pigs. But he did get liver cancer. And it was through his liver cancer that Jonathan realized that he needed God back in his life.A few weeks ago, Sarah sent me an e-mail exchange between Jonathan and a friend of hers named Karen who was diagnosed with cancer 13 years ago. She survived and now tries to encourage other people who are battling cancer. In one of those e-mails, Jonathan wrote:
“God has given me inner strength and peace by revealing himself to me through this ordeal as I sincerely believe He has tailored this condition perfectly for my life: for He knew that this would be the only way He was going to bring me back to Him.”
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Psalm 103 where it says: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”
The love God gave me for Jonathan, despite all the problems he brought into our lives, helped me to understand how great God’s love is for us. We cause God grief by our sins and failures. But he still loves us. All he asks of us is a spirit of humility like Jonathan had, and faith in his son Jesus, who he sent to pay our debt of sin when he died on the cross. Thank you for being here to honor Jonathan or “Jona”, whichever name you knew him by.